Fitbit Alta HR, 'World's Slimmest Fitness Wristband With Heart Rate Sensor', Launched at Rs. 14,999

Fitbit has launched its Alta HR fitness wristband, which as per the company's claims, is the "world's slimmest wristband with continuous heart rate tracking." The Alta HR fitness wristband has been priced at Rs. 14,999 and can be pre-ordered from Amazon India from March 15 to March 31. While the wearable will be made available with Amazon exclusively till April 15 in India, it will be available through other retailers including Reliance Digital, Croma, Helios, Jumbo, and Vijay Sales afterwards.

Internationally, the Fitbit Alta HR has been priced at $149 (roughly Rs. 9,900) and the company has started taking pre-orders for the device that will become available in early April. The Special Edition Alta HR (which will be available in Gun Metal and Rose Gold colours) has been priced at Rs. 16,999 while Classic and Luxe Leather bands for the wearable will cost Rs. 2,999 and Rs. 5,999 respectively. The Luxe Metal Bracelet has been priced by the company at Rs. 9,999.

The newly-launched fitness band comes with PurePulse heart rate technology, features automatic exercise recognition, sleep tracking, and smart notifications. As per the company, the Fitbit Alta HR provides up to seven days of battery life. The company says that the Alta HR "utilises heart rate variability to estimate the amount of time you spend in light, deep and REM sleep, as well as time awake each night to better understand your sleep quality," in its release.

Even though company says that the new wearable provides better calorie burn measurement, the company seems to have focused on sleep tracking with the device. Fitbit says, with the PurePulse technology, the Alta HR "uses accelerometer data and heart rate variability (the changes in time between beats), plus Fitbit's proven algorithms to more accurately estimate how long you spend in light, deep and REM sleep stages, as well as time awake, each night,".

In order to track your sleep better, the company has introduced two new sleep-focused features, namely - Sleep Stages and Sleep Insights. Developed by a panel of sleep experts, the company claims that Sleep Stages provides users with information previously only accessible through a sleep lab, while Sleep Insights is said to provide "personal guidance" to better sleep.

Sleep Stages will work with Alta HR, Blaze, and Charge 2 devices through the Fitbit app on Android, iOS, and Windows. It will also be available on Fitbit.com in the company's online dashboard. On the other hand, the Sleep Insights will be made available with all Fitbit devices that track sleep using the Fitbit app. Fitbit says, both Sleep Stages and Sleep Insights will be made available globally in 'Spring 2017'.

"Alta HR and these powerful new sleep features demonstrate our continued focus on evolving our innovative technology to deliver deeper, more actionable insights to help our users improve their health," James Park, co-founder and CEO of Fitbit, was quoted as saying in the release.

"The miniaturisation of our PurePulse heart rate technology opens up exciting opportunities for future generations of devices and new form factors. Our advances in sleep will provide millions of users around the globe accessibility to invaluable insights that previously could be obtained only through expensive lab tests," he said.